Some account of the Balakhsh from Oriental sources will be found in J.
As. ser V. tom. xi. 109.
(I. B. III. 59, 394; Alb. Mag. de Mineralibus; Pegol. p. 307; N. et
E. XIII. i. 246.)
["The Mohammedan authors of the Mongol period mention Badakhshan several
times in connection with the political and military events of that period.
Guchluk, the 'gurkhan of Karakhitai,' was slain in Badakhshan in 1218
(d'Ohsson, I. 272). In 1221, the Mongols invaded the country (l.c. I.
272). On the same page, d'Ohsson translates a short account of Badakhshan
by Yakut (+ 1229), stating that this mountainous country is famed for its
precious stones, and especially rubies, called Balakhsh."
(Bretschneider, Med. Res. II. p. 66.) - H. C.]
The account of the royal monopoly in working the mines, etc., has
continued accurate down to our own day. When Murad Beg of Kunduz conquered
Badakhshan some forty years ago, in disgust at the small produce of the
mines, he abandoned working them, and sold nearly all the population of
the place into slavery! They continue still unworked, unless
clandestinely. In 1866 the reigning Mir had one of them opened at the
request of Pandit Manphul, but without much result.
The locality of the mines is on the right bank of the Oxus, in the
district of Ish Kashm and on the borders of SHIGNAN, the Syghinan of the
text. (P. Manph.; Wood, 206; N. Ann. des. V. xxvi. 300.)
[The ruby mines are really in the Gharan country, which extends along both
banks of the Oxus. Barshar is one of the deserted villages; the boundary
between Gharan and Shignan is the Kuguz Parin (in Shighai dialect means
"holes in the rock"); the Persian equivalent is "Rafak-i-Somakh." (Cf.
Captain Trotter, Forsyth's Mission, p. 277.) - H. C.]
NOTE 3. - The mines of Lajwurd (whence l'Azur and Lazuli) have been,
like the Ruby mines, celebrated for ages. They lie in the Upper Valley of
the Kokcha, called Koran, within the Tract called Yamgan, of which the
popular etymology is Hamah-Kan, or "All-Mines," and were visited by Wood
in 1838. The produce now is said to be of very inferior quality, and in
quantity from 30 to 60 poods (36 lbs each) annually. The best quality
sells at Bokhara at 30 to 60 tillas, or 12l. to 24l. the pood
(Manphul). Surely it is ominous when a British agent writing of
Badakhshan products finds it natural to express weights in Russian poods!
The Yamgan Tract also contains mines of iron, lead, alum, salammoniac,
sulphur, ochre, and copper. The last are not worked. But I do not learn of
any silver mines nearer than those of Paryan in the Valley of Panjshir,
south of the crest of the Hindu-Kush, much worked in the early Middle
Ages. (See Cathay, p. 595.)
NOTE 4.
